1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to data access network systems. More particularly, this invention relates to a system and method for providing performance guarantees for content sites (e.g., world wide web sites) hosted in a data service system such that accesses to one content site do not affect the performance of accesses to other content sites.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of a data access network system is an Internet/Intranet network system. An Internet/Intranet network system typically includes a data service system and an interconnect network that connects the data service system to subscriber or user terminals or other data service systems. The data service system is typically referred to as an Internet/Intranet Service Provider(ISP) system. The ISP system can host a number of content sites. The ISP system can also be connected to other ISP systems via an interconnect network, thus forming the Internet/Intranet network system. The users connected to the ISP system can access the content sites within the ISP system or the content sites within the other ISP systems via the network.
An ISP system typically includes web and/or content servers that host contents for various customers or applications. The customers are the owners of the contents and the ISP system is used for the customers to host their contents such that subscribers or users can access the contents via their computer terminals connected to the ISP system. The content servers typically utilize Internet applications, such as electronic mail, bulletin boards, news groups, and World Wide Web access. The hosted contents are arranged in the form of content sites within the content servers. This means a content site is for one customer while a particular customer may own a number of content sites. In addition, the ISP system may have a Proxy server that allows a network administrator to restrict access to the Internet. Another use of the Proxy server is to cache frequently accessed data from the Internet.
The ISP system can host multiple content sites for various customers. For example, the ISP system may host a content site for one customer and one or a number of content sites for another customer. This allows an individual customer to obtain the benefits provided by the ISP system without actually acquiring the physical ISP system. This also allows the resources of the ISP system to be effectively and efficiently used and managed.
However, one problem associated with such an arrangement is that the ISP system typically does not provide performance guarantees for the content sites it hosts. This means that the ISP system does not provide features like performance stability over a range of client demands, non-interference performance among co-hosted content sites, targeted performance, and overload protection for the hosted content sites. As is known, when a customer contracts the ISP system to host a content site, the customer typically desires that access requests to his content site can be quickly processed without delay. However, because the ISP system typically hosts multiple content sites and the content sites hosted by the ISP system can be accessed by multiple users, unbearably long delays or even deadlocks may occur when the total number of access requests received by the ISP system at one time greatly exceeds the total number of access requests permitted by the ISP system (i.e., the entire system is overloaded). When this occurs, the performance of each of the content sites is affected. This is true even when all of the user access requests may be directed to just one of the content sites. This thus hinders the ISP system to provide quality services for its customers who host their content sites in the ISP system.